NASHVILLE, Ind. (AP) -- A Martinsville teen has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for setting a fire that destroyed a historic Brown County church.
Ronald M. Fleener Jr., 18, pleaded guilty to arson, a Class B felony, in the fire that destroyed the Bear Creek Church near Trevlac in northwestern Brown County last January. Other charges of burglary and theft were dropped.
Fleener, a juvenile at the time of the arson, was tried as an adult. On Thursday, Brown Circuit Court Judge Judith Stewart suspended two of the 10 years of his sentence and ordered him to serve those two years on probation once he is released.
Stewart also ordered him to perform 100 hours of community service, pay $105,000 in restitution to the church's insurance company and obtain his general equivalency diploma.
``I think it was a very good sentence,'' Prosecutor Jim Oliver said. ``It's consistent with other sentences that she has imposed, and it recognizes the serious loss that was caused to our community.''
One of the last remaining buildings in the area without indoor plumbing, Bear Creek Church was believed to have been built around 1912.
